The rambling Anglican Ordinand Jon Swales has drawn attention to a Themelios review of N.T. Wright’s Justification: Paul’s Vision and God’s Plan, which was Wright’s response to John Piper’s critique of his attack on the Reformed understanding of justification. It gets more convoluted. The review is written by David Mathis, who turns out to be the Executive Pastoral Assistant to Piper at Bethlehem Baptist Church. The fact that this is a less than impartial review is not a problem in itself, but I’m surprised that Mathis’ relation to Piper was not more clearly signalled. Unfortunately, the American edition of Wright’s book appears to be paginated differently to the British edition, which makes it difficult to evaluate his imprecise criticisms. Nevertheless, Mathis’ argument that Wright makes too much of Abraham in his exposition of the ‘righteousness of God’ struck me as curious, so I thought I would take an opportunistic stroll down this incidental path through the forest of the justification debate.

The story of the martyrdom of James, the brother of Jesus, casts an interesting light on how the early church in Jerusalem understood its future. There are two accounts of his death which are difficult to reconcile, but it is in any case the narrative content that is of concern to us here rather than the historicity of the events described.

Douglas Campbell’s The Deliverance of God is an extraordinary – and I think extraordinarily flawed – attempt to erase Justification Theory from Paul’s theology. It is a mammoth book to read, let alone attempt to review, in toto; and if it is a large enough wood to survey, it is also extremely dense and tangled, so I will content myself with hacking away at the odd tree here and there. Besides, others will do a much better job of assessing and situating the work. Andy Rowell has a helpful collection of links to early reviews and an interview that Michael Bird did with Campbell; but the best online review I have come across is Loren Rosson’s, with whose conclusions, for now at least, I would broadly agree…

My wife and I attended the Liturgy at the Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist in the depths of rural Essex yesterday. It was our second visit with our friend Olivera. I would describe it less as a service of worship in the way that most Catholics and Protestants would understand it, more as an intimate drama in the round acted by monks and priests in the midst of the audience. Since most of the Liturgy is in Greek, there is plenty of time for reflection.

In the book shop afterwards I picked up a copy of Encounter, by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. Flicking through, I came across the following paragraph, from an address given at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition and All Saints in 1991. Rather than buy the book, I took a picture of the page…

Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul’s Mission, by Davina Lopez, is a good example of what has probably been the most significant turn that Pauline studies have taken following the New Perspective.